Entertainer Archive
Thread: Workaround for simultaneous music/dance buffs!
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Panthu
Sat Aug 21, 2004 7:45 am
#1
Hmm... not really a work around. This is just how it's working. *shrug* Try explaining this to a patron in a hurry though. 
It's an awful bug and just needs to be fixed.
Tiaga
Sat Aug 21, 2004 7:56 am
#2
It's as good as we're going to get of a workaround. It just takes an extra 2 minutes to buff both instead of 3.
Explaining it to a patron isn't that hard. Already tried it on a few and they didn't get too confused.
Yeah it needs to be fixed, but I think that pretty much shows it's because of the 2 minutes.
Explaining it to a patron isn't that hard. Already tried it on a few and they didn't get too confused.
Yeah it needs to be fixed, but I think that pretty much shows it's because of the 2 minutes.
Tarnak_Archvold
Sat Aug 21, 2004 7:57 am
#3
So if I am giving a music buff to someone and they do a /stopwatch on a dancer while I am buffing, my buff will not stick because they did not do a /listen after the /stopwatch! Could this be one of the reasons for the problem with our buffs sometimes not sticking?
JohnMarble
Sat Aug 21, 2004 7:57 am
#4
Yeah, and some guy already posted about this so...with bandflos buffs only take 2 minutes anyway.
Tiaga
Sat Aug 21, 2004 8:38 am
#5
JohnMarble wrote:Yeah, and some guy already posted about this so...with bandflos buffs only take 2 minutes anyway.
That's an exploit though. And exactly what the 2 minutes was put in to stop.
Drygo
Sat Aug 21, 2004 8:58 am
#6
Hmm, interesting. Well, I can see how this could be somewhat controllable and easy to instruct people when we're doing individual buffs, or buffing a group that is all together. But, I still think this would be extremely difficult to keep explaining when you're doing group buffs for people coming in sporadically and having to explain to each new patron that comes into the group 30 seconds later, and then a minute later, etc. But, hey, I'm willing to try it. I just need to find a master musician to start doing this with. But, this is good, because this can give us an extra advantage over the buffbots. People are generally going to be more willing to use real entertainers if we offer some sort of advantage, either through the use of skill tapes for a better buff, or decreased time. I think one of the reasons that buffbots have an advantage over us is because of the dual dancer/musician buffbots. And, that just increased their viability when the bug was introduced in the first place and people could no longer get our buffs simultaneously. Even a couple minutes shaved off of buffing time would help us compete. However, also, as Panthu says, this bug really needs to be fixed in a major way to allow us to compete better.
At any rate, any master musicians on Kettemoor want to go with me to Coronet and spam advertise our quicker buffs, and put Shalina out of business? Send me /tell. 
Tiaga
Sat Aug 21, 2004 9:08 am
#7
I've got a fix I've been pushing to the devs that, given what I know now, I'm pretty sure will squash this bug flat, and get rid of the 2 minute forced minimum at the same time.
And Drygo, I got a musician I've been working on. Almost master now. Would love to work as a buffing team when the time comes.
And Drygo, I got a musician I've been working on. Almost master now. Would love to work as a buffing team when the time comes.
Tiaga
Sat Aug 21, 2004 12:59 pm
#8
Alright given what I know about buffs, I've been wanting to try a few things with dancer/musician buffs. I just haven't had the chance as that requires 3 characters to test, not just 2.
I finally got the chance to test when I teamed up with a musician today for buffing.
So I grabbed my second account, and tried a few tests with short duration buffs. Confident that it would work I then went for the full 2 hours. I had the recipient listen to the musician and watch the dancer. After the normal buff duration, I stopped listening, then stopped watching. One of the buffs will take, one will not. The one you stop first will be the buff that takes. Start the other one, then after just 2 minutes, stop it.
What I did when I successfully did this:
/listen Musician
/watch Dancer
<20 minute delay>
/stoplisten
/stopwatch
/watch Dancer
<2 minute delay>
/stopwatch
Still not ideal, but instead of taking 7 minutes to do music+dance, it can take a little over 5.
The basic rules are this:
That last point is important to remember. If someone says a buff didn't take and you have reason to believe they really were watching/listening, tell them to try again for 2 minutes and they should get the full buff.
I finally got the chance to test when I teamed up with a musician today for buffing.
So I grabbed my second account, and tried a few tests with short duration buffs. Confident that it would work I then went for the full 2 hours. I had the recipient listen to the musician and watch the dancer. After the normal buff duration, I stopped listening, then stopped watching. One of the buffs will take, one will not. The one you stop first will be the buff that takes. Start the other one, then after just 2 minutes, stop it.
What I did when I successfully did this:
/listen Musician
/watch Dancer
<20 minute delay>
/stoplisten
/stopwatch
/watch Dancer
<2 minute delay>
/stopwatch
Still not ideal, but instead of taking 7 minutes to do music+dance, it can take a little over 5.
The basic rules are this:
- For a buff to take, you must stop watching or listening 2 minutes after any time you start watching or listening. Even if you are getting a dancer buff, if you start listening to a musician, you must wait 2 minutes after you start listening to stop watching the dancer.
- You also must have started watching or listening (As appropriate) more recently than you stopped either for the buff to take. That's why you stop both then re-start the one that didn't take.
- When a buff doesn't take, usually the buff is still there, it just needs 2 minutes to simmer.
That last point is important to remember. If someone says a buff didn't take and you have reason to believe they really were watching/listening, tell them to try again for 2 minutes and they should get the full buff.
Message Edited by Tiaga on 08-21-2004 01:01 AM
Banthabutcher
Sat Aug 21, 2004 3:02 pm
#9
Hmmm, will this work for grouping as well?
Say it's a really busy day. You have a full group of people you're buffing. Others come in looking for a buff but the group is full. Can they watch/listen you for the buff duration, then get in the group once everyone else has theirs, listen for 2 minutes, and then get the full buff?
Tiaga
Sat Aug 21, 2004 6:49 pm
#10
Other way around. The two minutes they don't need to be grouped for, the rest of the duration they do.
Likely this would be more useful for organized or single group buffing, not revolving group buffing.
Likely this would be more useful for organized or single group buffing, not revolving group buffing.
JohnMarble
Sun Aug 22, 2004 5:32 pm
#11
Tiaga wrote:
JohnMarble wrote:
Yeah, and some guy already posted about this so...with bandflos buffs only take 2 minutes anyway.
That's an exploit though. And exactly what the 2 minutes was put in to stop.
Well, the way I look at it, it's like this: Somebody fails getting a buff from me when I'm doing normal flo'sin some group, I'll disband and reform with the customer, make sure he listens right andtry it again in the bandflos fortwo minutes. If there's a group 5 or more people wanting a buff, odds are the buff is going to fail on some of them. In a group like that, everybody has to wait as long as the person who has to listen longest. So I buff them in two minutes, so I can hopefully get them done in four minutes, sometimes 6. If I have a group of 10 or more people, and nobody fails a buff on the first try, it's so statistically impossible it'd be like winning the lottery. I don't buy its our fault or the customer's fault. The code is wacky.
Often you have to resort to exploits to get around bugs.
fett3041
Tue Aug 24, 2004 4:12 pm
#12
There's NEVER a reason to resort to exploits. That's like saying, 'Often you have to resort to bank robbery to get around paying bills.'
Bugs happen. Devs are by no means perfect. You document and report the bugs. Then you try to find a work around while the Devs supposedly work on a fix.
JohnMarble
Sat Aug 28, 2004 2:11 pm
#13
Hey, I'm not exploiting, just doing what I always do. If I'm grouped with people, I flo like normal. If it's just me and the droid, I use bandflos. I've done it that way since I first got my droid, and I'll do it that way if they ever change buffs. I'm just thankful the days of making somebody wait twenty minutes for a buff, and then it fails again, are long gone. Maybe buffs failed more back then because people had more time to do something to screw the buff up.
I don't buff as much as I used to, so maybe the code has been cleaned, or people just know the routine better now. But I still get people saying the buff didn't work.Should I make them wait four minutes the second time? If I was a machine, I would, but I don't, sorry.
There's way too much hoping praying and guessing with these damn buffs.
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